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ChaLEAN Extreme Circuit

This past May, I had to have another surgery since fighting cancer. After about 6 weeks, and my doctors ok to start a fitness program, I was ready. But, the deal was ‘no impact’. That meant no running, which is my passion. So I knew P90X, Insanity and Turbo Fire were all out of the questions. That’s when I thought about trying ChaLEAN Extreme. I first borrowed it from my up-line so I could make sure it was in line with what I wanted. I read through the entire thing before I started anything. Even though I don’t need to “lose weight” I wanted to do a program that focused on Resistance. And, boy am I glad I did.

Day 1 starting with the Burn Phase. As I found out, Chalene works you from head to toe. Chalene had me doing upper body exercises with weight at the same time I was doing something with my lower body. That way, every single part of my body gets used. An example was Chalene has me doing a lunge with lateral raises at the same time. This was an introduction to the philosophy, technique, and fundamentals that makes up the program. This phase had me break down the “extra” reserves of fat and start revving my body’s fat-burning capacity. What would really make this program work for me was what Chalene calls “Getting Extreme”. After performing the moderate weight-training workout of 8 – 10 reps, she would have you rest for 10 seconds then do 3 reps very, very slow and intense. Did I say slow! I learned quickly why she called it “Extreme”. My result was awesome. I had friends asking me what I was doing since my arms & shoulders were definitely toned.

The second month was the Push Phase. This phase focused on intense, heavy lifting. The reps went down to 6 – 8 which pushed my muscles to the max. Ok, so this was the phase that I was SO sore! On this phase, though, I would work either my upper or lower body individually. If you are worred about “bulking up” doing heavy lifting, there is no need. It takes muscle to burn fat. And, because Chalene has you doing low reps you will not bulk up.

The last 30 days was the Lean Phase. This phase was inspiring and really forced my body to get lean. And, did I mention that you will sweat like you can’t imagine. A big part was because this phase is a strength-circuit workouts that focus on dynamic, functional moves that had me working my upper, lower and core centers all at the same time. Plus, Chalene had me maxing my muscles by performing breakdown sets after every single move. Another reason this is called “Extreme”!

Burn it off, Burn intervals, Ab burner and Extreme abs are also included twice a week in each of the 3 phases. Burn it off is a high intensity workout that helped strengthen my heart and lungs while continuing the calorie burning. The Burn interval is a combination of strength and cardo training that alternates bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity. Ab burner and Extreme abs helped me shrink, tighten and tone my core. This was very important with all the marathons I run.

My overall experience with ChaLEAN Extreme was fantastic. My body fat went from 21 to 17 which I was very happy about. If you are someone who loves Resistance workouts like myself or just want to change up your routine, then this is the program for you! Make sure to check it out and see how amazing it is for yourself!